LAUSD Payroll Repayments - A Little Slack for Employees

By Robert Charette

Posted 9 Dec 2007 | 18:54 GMT

The LA Times last week reported that Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) has decided to extend its deadline to recoup most of the $53 million that it believes to have been overpaid to about 32,000 employees because of its faulty payroll system.

The Times writes that the LAUSD had originally "set a Nov. 26 deadline for workers to decide whether to repay the entire amount they had reportedly received, repay only the amount they believe they were overpaid, or refuse to pay anything. Employees were also warned that if repayments were not made by Dec. 10, they would also have to repay additional money withheld by the district for state and federal taxes."

The new dates for employees were the December 7th regarding how they wished to proceed, and now they have until Dec. 17 to make any repayments.

About 2,400 LAUSD employees have decided to contest the district's claims and are refusing to pay some or all of the amounts demanded, because they don't trust the figures the LAUSD has provided to them.

The LAUSD is putting none too subtle pressure on those 2,400 to accept the amount they are said to owe nevertheless.

As the Times reports, "those disagreements won't be discussed until next year, when district and union officials can set up a resolution process. But by then the district will have paid taxes on over-payments, and employees will be faced with the prospect of seeking refunds for themselves from tax agencies."

LAUSD officials believe that most of their payroll problems are behind them, but if a large number of its 2,400 employees who are contesting their alleged over-payments are shown to be indeed correct in their suspicions, the mess will have only just begun.